Eye-on-Retail Daily Tipsheet Archives

“Dollar General makes rival $9.7B bid for Family Dollar (Dollar General CEO would stay on until 2016)” by Andrew Ross Sorkin at CNBC. “Dollar General’s offer of $78.50 a share in cash is higher than the $74.50 a share in cash and stock bid made by Dollar Tree on July 28. If a Dollar General-Family Dollar tie up goes through, the combined company would have 20,000 stores in 46 states, with sales of $28 billion.” See the video / Read more

Dollar General Press Release:“The transaction would create the preeminent small-box retailer in the U.S. based on store locations, delivering convenience and everyday low prices to customers through nearly 20,000 stores in 46 states with sales exceeding $28 billion and over 160,000 employees…The proposed transaction would be expected to generate significant synergies of $550 million to $600 million on an annual run-rate three years post-closing.” Read the release

@BrianSozzi: “If Dollar General lands Family Dollar, it will be b-r-u-t-a-l for @Walmart.”

“Returning to Wal-Mart: Human Cashiers” by Shelly Banjo at WSJ. “In an attempt to lure more customers this holiday season, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is promising to staff each of its cash register from the day after Thanksgiving through the days just before Christmas during peak shopping times. The move, called the “checkout promise,” is aimed at addressing one of the retailer’s biggest customer complaints: long waits in checkout lines…The pledge will cover hours typically on weekend afternoons but which can vary by store.” Read more

“Target to Keep Some Stores Open to Midnight in Push for Traffic” by Paul Ziobro at WSJ. “The new extended hours are starting this month and will be in effect through the holidays, after which they will be evaluated. Target spokesman Eric Hausman said shoppers had been asking for longer hours and that there were often a large number of shoppers in stores near closing time. “We did a lot more analysis into how big an opportunity this is, and there is a really big opportunity here,” Mr. Hausman said…A relatively small portion of the U.S. population shops late. At 10 p.m., 37% of people over the age of 15 are asleep and 26% are watching television, according the Labor Department’s American Time Use Survey. Only 0.3% were shopping.” Read more

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“The Home Depot Leadership team takes the ALS ice bucket challenge (and the look on Frank Blake’s face is priceless)” See the video

“Walmart Taking Advantage of Amazon and Disney Feud” at SF Gate. “Number of the day. 40 percent. That’s how much Wal-Mart was discounting online pre-orders of Disney DVDs last week. The offer helped boost sales of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” by 90 percent, with other titles climbing 40 percent, the retailing giant said.” Read more

“Amazon moving Nevada warehouse from Fernley to Reno” at The Seattle Times. “KRNV-TV first reported on Friday that the new facility will be housed in the LogistiCenter 395 that Dermody Properties is building off of Lemmon Drive just north of Reno. The current warehouse covers 750,000 square feet. When completed in the next few years, the LogistiCenter complex will feature three buildings with a total of 1.2 million square feet of warehouse space on a 91-acre site overlooking U.S. 395.” Read more

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